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Doesn't always cost millions of dollars for cancer treatments.
mine were $192k
Mine was $250k, plus another $50k a year in follow up costs (appointments, scans, medications, treating long-term side effects). I was diagnosed a month after my 23rd birthday, 4 months into my first post-college job, making $35k a year. And my cancer was considered cheap compared to many friends who I have met in the community. While I had insurance at the time, only a few months before I was denied insurance due to pre-existing conditions.
If I relapse (and my chances are high), it will be over $1million for my next round of treatments - including intensive chemo and a stem cell transplant, and I will need to be out of work for at LEAST 6 months (not counting the months of intensive chemo I would need to work through BEFORE that 6 month period). I'm 24 years old and I have no money saved following treatment and no family to help out. I graduated from college debt free due to scholarships and moved 1000 miles from home to get this job.
My dad was recently diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's and has numerous other health issues. He's been unemployed for several years due to his declining mental condition (though only recently go the diagnosis) and will likely never work again. He's only 55. He was always the breadwinner and my mom makes barely above minumum wage working in a daycare. They are about to lose their house. There is nowhere for them to go either- and they can't offer me any kind of safety net if I relapse. In just this year, my dad's medical costs have been over $150,000 - and my parents have a $5000 (I believe) deductible that reverts to 80-20 after that. Just the insurance premiums and deductible alone are more than half of my mom's income. Their max out of pocket is $20,000 - an unsustainable figure when you consider that's about my mom's pre-tax income.
It is shocking to me that society thinks it's OK to let people like my family go out on the streets because of medical problems. I got a full tuition scholarship to one of the best colleges in the country. I work full time at an entry-level job with room for growth, but an entry level paycheck. I have looked for part time work, but frankly, with my long term fatigue due to chemo and physical issues, there is little that I can do. I am in grad school for free thanks to work. My dad worked from the time he was 15 years old, pulling himself (and his mother and siblings) out of poverty. My parents always lived below their means. When my dad began to lose cognitive abilities that resulted in losing his job as a consultant at one of the most prestigious consulting firms in the country, he continued to look for work but was able to keep my family afloat for years on savings. That's gone and most of his mind is gone now too. And at 55 and having been unemployed for several years (both due to health issues and a period due to the economy), my parents do not qualify for any assistance. If my dad needs full-time care (which we were told would happen in the next 5 years), there is no one to help. My parents are on their own, my mom would need to quit her measly paying job, they'd have no financial help whatsoever. They will lose everything they saved for retirement before they even reach retirement age, and then my mom will be on her own after my dad passes.
Even before my family experienced all of this tragedy, I supported a strong safety net for the poor. Now, I am experiencing what it's like for there not to be a safety net. And it's horrifying and very disheartening to think that human beings can treat each other like this.
I guess some people have never heard of insurance companies unless they're talking about meducal coverage.
Short and long term disability policies are actually bought by some people that want to cover such eventualities.
Life insurance covers those that want to ensure their families wont 'starve' if they die.
People that truely want to take care of themselves plan for the worst and hope for the best.
No, they look to government and social programs as their answer.
Obvioulsy not jobs skills, work ethic or responsibility. Hell when your local high school builds a million dollar baseball stadium, ipads for the kids and then cries because they don't have the money to hire or pay teachers what should we expect right.
Good thing that the "Conservatives" have been cutting school funding for decades and want to do away totally with the Department of Education. We can't have any one actually learning and bettering themselves.
BTW, most of those iPad programs end up saving the districts money. When school books cost $150/each the cost savings add up really quick.
Good thing that the "Conservatives" have been cutting school funding for decades and want to do away totally with the Department of Education. We can't have any one actually learning and bettering themselves.
BTW, most of those iPad programs end up saving the districts money. When school books cost $150/each the cost savings add up really quick.
K-12 still get the books only they are put away in storage closets.
K-12 books do not cost $150 each.
You are thinking of college where the electronic version replaces the book and the books are over $100.
Mine was $250k, plus another $50k a year in follow up costs (appointments, scans, medications, treating long-term side effects). I was diagnosed a month after my 23rd birthday, 4 months into my first post-college job, making $35k a year. And my cancer was considered cheap compared to many friends who I have met in the community. While I had insurance at the time, only a few months before I was denied insurance due to pre-existing conditions.
If I relapse (and my chances are high), it will be over $1million for my next round of treatments - including intensive chemo and a stem cell transplant, and I will need to be out of work for at LEAST 6 months (not counting the months of intensive chemo I would need to work through BEFORE that 6 month period). I'm 24 years old and I have no money saved following treatment and no family to help out. I graduated from college debt free due to scholarships and moved 1000 miles from home to get this job.
My dad was recently diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's and has numerous other health issues. He's been unemployed for several years due to his declining mental condition (though only recently go the diagnosis) and will likely never work again. He's only 55. He was always the breadwinner and my mom makes barely above minumum wage working in a daycare. They are about to lose their house. There is nowhere for them to go either- and they can't offer me any kind of safety net if I relapse. In just this year, my dad's medical costs have been over $150,000 - and my parents have a $5000 (I believe) deductible that reverts to 80-20 after that. Just the insurance premiums and deductible alone are more than half of my mom's income. Their max out of pocket is $20,000 - an unsustainable figure when you consider that's about my mom's pre-tax income.
It is shocking to me that society thinks it's OK to let people like my family go out on the streets because of medical problems. I got a full tuition scholarship to one of the best colleges in the country. I work full time at an entry-level job with room for growth, but an entry level paycheck. I have looked for part time work, but frankly, with my long term fatigue due to chemo and physical issues, there is little that I can do. I am in grad school for free thanks to work. My dad worked from the time he was 15 years old, pulling himself (and his mother and siblings) out of poverty. My parents always lived below their means. When my dad began to lose cognitive abilities that resulted in losing his job as a consultant at one of the most prestigious consulting firms in the country, he continued to look for work but was able to keep my family afloat for years on savings. That's gone and most of his mind is gone now too. And at 55 and having been unemployed for several years (both due to health issues and a period due to the economy), my parents do not qualify for any assistance. If my dad needs full-time care (which we were told would happen in the next 5 years), there is no one to help. My parents are on their own, my mom would need to quit her measly paying job, they'd have no financial help whatsoever. They will lose everything they saved for retirement before they even reach retirement age, and then my mom will be on her own after my dad passes.
Even before my family experienced all of this tragedy, I supported a strong safety net for the poor. Now, I am experiencing what it's like for there not to be a safety net. And it's horrifying and very disheartening to think that human beings can treat each other like this.
Very well stated. This is the reality of life for many people fellow posters. I think its despicable to treat other human beings like they are disposable. Just throw them away because they are sick.
charolastra, I appreciate you sharing your experiences. I hope they open up many eyes to the realities that many fellow Americans face everyday.
No, they look to government and social programs as their answer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HappyTexan
You are convinced that the government is the answer.
At one time it was the Church and the family as government didn't provide.
As those two social institutions fell apart the government took its place.
Have you read charolastra's story? There needs to be a social safety net in place specifically because of cases like hers and millions of others.
The church and family did not fall apart because of government intervention. The churches could not (and cannot) keep up with the demands of the needy. This is an incontrovertible fact. Government needed to step in to pick up the slack where families and churches simply could not. Having worked with charities for years as well as having several close friends who are leaders in their churches, I can tell you that most churches cannot keep up with need and they never could.
Typical elementary-school textbooks cost more than $100 each, and, as a result, the four largest textbook publishers rake in more than $4 billion each year. A big part of that haul, of course, comes out of state education budgets nationwide.
Very well stated. This is the reality of life for many people fellow posters. I think its despicable to treat other human beings like they are disposable. Just throw them away because they are sick.
charolastra, I appreciate you sharing your experiences. I hope they open up many eyes to the realities that many fellow Americans face everyday.
Thank you! I feel a bit like a broken record because all I really post about on this forum is my story - but it's a story that needs to be told every single time I hear people complaining about the poor because they are "lazy", "didn't plan or save", "didn't have personal responsibility", or "made bad choices". I am none of the above. Most of the poor I know (mostly through the young adult cancer community and working with teenagers in or recently aged out of the foster care system) didn't make poor choices either.
I'm not saying that no one makes poor choices that result in poverty, or that there are no welfare queens, but it's overstated.
I went from a 22 year old who worked my tush off to be as well-prepared for "the real world" as I could with savings, skills, no debt, internships, foreign languages, a polished professional persona, etc etc to a depressed 23 year old in a mountain of debt and very ill, facing life-threatening and financially devastating illness on my own. You don't hear about us because we don't make nice news stories (though I have been on the news several times with my story) that are either heart warming or play to peoples' personal indignation.
How does someone making $75K per year save for the millions of dollars that it takes for cancer treatments?
No one can answer your question Magritte. There is no way to do so; there is no charity going to provide for that; no church . . . .
Hence, the need for insurance.
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